Homeschooling the High School Years (Part 1- A Day in the Life)

Welcome to part one of a five part series focusing on our experiences homeschooling through the high school years. This series will tackle what high school learning looks like at our house, the benefits of homeschooling the high school years, the curriculum we use (plus activities outside the home), how we prepare for college, and our advice for both the child and the parent.

♥ I have four children; three are now young adults in their twenties. Our experiences with their K-12 years include public schools, private schools, and homeschooling, within the United States, Canada, and Peru. My oldest son was never homeschooled. My two daughters were homeschooled through their middle and high school years, and my youngest son has been steadily homeschooled since he was 6-years old. ♥ Now that you have some background on us, let’s begin with what homeschooling high school looks like at our house. Homeschoolers often call this a “day in the life”:

Our Mondays through Thursdays are pretty much the same, and I’ll admit, a little dull to document! However, having my son home during his school day is priceless to me:

6:50am- I drag myself out of bed (I am not a morning person!) to take Marcus to his Seminary class, which is from 7:40 to 8:30am. We leave the house by 7:10 and drive to an LDS meetinghouse two towns over. Seminary, by the way, is a rewarding four-year in-depth scripture study program (awesome training for our missionaries) for youth in grades 9-12 in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Marcus is following the footsteps of his dad, his mom and his three older siblings, who are all Seminary graduates.

♥ To make the most of our car time together, we listen to audio books. Today we finished the Rush Revere adventure series. We have thoroughly enjoyed these books, which are both entertaining and educational. We highly recommend them! It’s kind of sad to say goodbye to Liberty and his friends, but we are excited to start a new series tomorrow- Cragbridge Hall.

9:00am– We arrive home. Marcus eats breakfast and then he has some time to finish up math work from the day before or read for history or English. If he’s caught up, he reads for fun. He also has daily chores to do, such as taking out garbage and recycling. I use this time to do a workout in my gym.

10:30am– Marcus’ first online class, science, begins. After science, he watches his math class, and after math, he watches his history class. These classes are filmed and streamed live, through an LDS-based private school, Liahona Preparatory Academy. We love, love, love Liahona! I will explain these online classes further in part three of this series.

1:15pm– The three online classes end so Marcus goes downstairs to the gym for a workout. He is currently working on his personal fitness merit badge for Boy Scouts.

2:00pm- Marcus has finished his workout and makes him some lunch. We usually eat lunch together, but we don’t always eat the same foods for lunch. Today I’m having left-overs from dinner last night, while Marcus is having mini corndogs.

2:30pm- Marcus has one more online class to watch, which is English. He can’t watch English live because it’s on at the same time as math. To be honest, he doesn’t always ideally watch English every day (I wish he would!) so we sometimes end up having an English marathon together, where he and I watch previous English classes in a row until he’s caught up. That is actually fun for me. I like to watch English with him so I feel a part of his education, and I often check off that he’s accomplished any assignments given. I have watched history and science with him as well, and I’ve even taken my own notes!

♥ That concludes the formal part of his school day. The rest of our day is the normal stuff- some housework, occasional errands, maybe a science experiment, mixed in with some goofing off and downtime, all leading up to dinner which we try to eat as a family between 5 and 6pm. On Tuesday nights, Marcus has a youth activity at church. We end our nights with family scripture study and prayer, and Marcus and I read-aloud together. We just finished the second book of the trilogy, Nightmares! which we both enjoy.

♥ I have two of my adult kids living at home. One is a full time student at the state university, with a part time job at a retail store. The other works full time at an ice cream factory. He works graveyard, which means he usually sleeps during the day. So, they are both in and out, and it’s a lot of fun for Marcus to have these older siblings around. His sister, Marissa, is currently serving a mission in Peru. She’s been out three weeks now and is doing great.

David, Darcie, Marissa, Marcus, Camie, and Zach

Our Fridays are a pretty free as there are no online classes (Liahona is a Monday thru Thursday school), but there is Seminary. So, we go to Seminary and then we come home and tackle whatever needs to get done. We were using Fridays as a nature club day, but we quit nature club in November because we were the only mother-teen duo and we felt completely out of place among all the cute younger families. But, a couple Fridays ago, Marcus went skiing with some friends, while I babysat two adorable littles.

♥ I just want to end by noting that although these three series I’ve mentioned are targeted for middle schoolers, we think they work for most ages, including 15-year olds and adults! To see other books we have read-aloud, check out this series of posts. Thank you for your likes and comments. Let me know if you have any questions about homeschooling through the high school years. ♥

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I am a wife and homeschooling mama, an auntie and a friend. I am a chocolate lover. I am a crafter, photographer, reader, and a traveler. I am a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (I am a Mormon).
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I’m still wondering if I’ll keep homeschooling for h.s. My oldest daughter is in 7th now. She basically does it all herself, but I wonder if I should ease her into the classroom setting so college doesn’t become a culture shock. Like you’ve described, though, homeschooling is just so nice and casual! Hard to give that up. 🙂

This is just our experience and opinions talking but both my daughters felt they were more prepared for college because they homeschooled through their high school years. They were already on their own schedule, etc. But then, they had each experienced some classroom settings at church and when we dual enrolled them for driver’s ed.